He expected a blueblood but fell in love with a bluestocking.

When incessant rains drown the crops in Berkshire in 1816, the losses continue to mount for Matthew, Earl of Wingfield. Already in debt due to his late father’s gambling, he knows he must seek financial relief—even if he’d rather spend his days reading novels.

A dunning notice from Bessie Dove-Lyon, proprietress of The Lyon’s Den, sends Matthew to London. He’s stunned to discover she’s not as concerned about his debt as she is about finding him a wealthy wife, claiming he won’t be required to participate in a game of chance to benefit from her matchmaking services. Unfamiliar with her usual tactics—he’s not a gambling man, after all—Matthew doesn’t question her motives, but her closest employee, Titan, certainly does.

The daughter of a successful publisher, bluestocking Catherine Kingston has immersed herself in the world of books, attending literary society meetings, and organizing her father’s extensive library and those of her friends. She has firmly established her disdain for the House of Lords among her literary friends, making it clear that a member of the peerage is out of the question for her.

Her dreams of inheriting Kingston Publishing are shattered when she learns her best friend is to marry Catherine’s father. She’ll not only lose her position in his household, but the possibility he’ll sire an heir has her deciding it’s time she sees to her own future by pursuing a position at a London bookshop.

Catherine never expects to meet a matchmaker there, nor hear the woman’s ridiculous proposal—that she consider marriage to a man she’s never met—even if he is a bookworm. .

What—or who—could possibly persuade her to marry?

Perhaps an earl with an irresistible proposal.

Tropes you'll enjoy:

• Matchmaking
• Arranged marriage
• Lyon's Den
• Books
• Bluestocking heroine
• Bookish hero
• Independent heroine